Drying apparatus



T. ALLSOP AND W. W. SIBSON.

DRYING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 4. 16m".

Patented Oct. 12, 1920.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS ALLSOP AND WALTER W. SIBSON, OF PIUILADELIPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNORS TO THE PHILADELPHIA DRYING MACHINERY COMPANY, 0F PHILA- DELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed August 4, 1919.

To all whom, t may concern Be it known that we, T HoMAs ALLsoP and IVALTER IV. SisoN, citizens of the United States, residing in the city and county of Patented Oct. 12, 1920. Serial No. 315,122.

best shown in Fig. III. The length of the apparatus is such as to accommodate one or more series or files of wheeled trucks 2, guided upon the tracks 3 3, running lon- Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, gitudinally through the inclosure. At the '60 have invented certain new and useful Imleft hand, or receiving end (Figs. I and II), provements in Drying Apparatus, whereof the inclosure, is provided with a door diathe following is a specification, reference begrammatically indicated at y5, which mayl be ing had to the accompanying drawings. either of the hinged or sliding type, so as to The invention relates to drying apparatus be capable of being readily opened and usually known as Tunnel truck driers, closed to permit the passage of the trucks. wherein the articles to be dried are advanced Vhile said trucks may be advanced either through the apparatus under the support of manually or automatically, in large apparaone or more series of wheeled trucks. tus of the type to which our invention per- The invention is directed more particutains, it is preferableto resort to the latter larly to a unique circulating system for apmethod. For accomplishing this purpose, paratus of the above type, whereby the air we have accordingly shown conventionally within is directed over a series of independin` Fig. I, a feeding mechanism in the form ent courses, so as to establish a series of sepof a series of sprocket chain devices 6, corarate and independent circulatory zones responding in number to that of the tracks through which the supporting trucks pass in and occupying central positions with re- Succession, during the drying operation. spect thereto. The feeding mechanism is The invention is further directed to driven from an overhead power shaft 7, the means whereby the atmospheric conditions motion of the latter being transmitted in the several circulatory zones may be inthrough a belt connection 8, and in turn redependently maintained at different degrees duced through worm gears 9. `The interof temperature and humidification, so that mittent control may be effected by any suitthe articles under treatment may be subable means l(not shown), and since this jected to gradual changes as they are admechanism forms no'part of the present invanced through the apparatus. vention, further reference thereto is The invention also provides for the condeemed unnecessary. tinual displacement of a proportionate As new trucks are advanced into the inamount of the recirculated air in each circlosure, the preceding units in the severalculatory zo'ne, so that a corresponding series or tiles, are bodily shifted so that the quantity of fresh air may at the same time leading trucks are discharged from the apbe admitted, and the 'entire volume thus paratus at the farther end. At this end, the changed at intervals. inclosure is provided ywith a door l0, simi- The invention also includes certain other lar to that described in connection with the novel features of construction and arrangereceiving end of the inclosure. ment which will be better understood from eferring now to Fig. III, it will be the detailed description which follows. noted that the trucks are accommodated In the accompanying drawings, Figure I, within the inclosure with ample provision is a plan v iew of a drying apparatus conon each side to form longitudinal passages veniently embodying our invention, certain 11 and 12, and, as shown in Figs. I and II, portions having been broken away to more -the trucks are provided with solid vvertical clearly illustrate details of the interior. ends 13 so that as they are arranged in se- Fig. II, is a. sideelevation of the receiving rial sequence within the inclosure, a number end of the apparatus, also having a portion of transverse channels extending between shown in broken-away section, and the side passages are automatically estab- Fig. III, is a cross sectional View of the lished. It is to be further noted that the device, as viewed in the direction of the arinterior of the inclosure is so arranged that rows III-III, in Fig. I. a series of fans 15, register with the alter- In its preferred form, our invention comnate rows of transverse channelsformed by prises an extensive inclosure 1, having the the trucks.l quadrangular cross sectional configuration Each of the fans 1s set wlthlna circular 110 shroud 16, which forms part of a partition 14, having a width corresponding to that of the trucks and extending from the floor to the ceiling of the inclosure.

Said partitions are also formed with lateral end extensions 17-17, which serve as continuations of the truck ends, when the latter are properly positioned in the inclosure, and are functional in preventing short circuiting 'of the air at these points.

The truck channels, intermediate those justdes'cribed, register with the spaces 18, between the fan partitions, so that' each pair ofadjacent transverse channels determines the circuit ofthe air .propelled by the fan withwhich they are immediately associated, the side passages 11 and 12, serving as common means for otherwise complet-ing the several independent circuits.

In order to prevent further short circuiting of the air through the clearance space above the trucks, we have provided longitu dinally running baflie plates 19-19, at each side of the inclosure, said plates being suspended from angle beams 20-20, which form part of the skeleton of the apparatus. For a similar reason, we 1have provided baflies 21-21,'at the bottom of the inclosure. These are of an even height with the iloors of the trucks. In this way, the air circulation is confined directly to the transverse channels established by the positioning of the trucks.

Located within the passage 11, and arranged in alternation with the fans 15, are a series of heating coil banks 22, one for each circulatory zone. These coil banks are supplementary to a similar series of larger coils 28, in the passage 12, at the opposite side of the inclosure. Both sets of heating coils are provided with individual regulating valves 25. p

Similarly arranged at each side of the ap paratus, are a series of humidifying devices 26 and 27, respectively, also having individual regulating valves 28.

In addition to the auxiliary appurtenances just described, we have provided, at each circulatory zone, for the admission of a certainamount of fresh air and a corresponding discharge of thequantity thus displaced from the interior. In the drawings, the inlets are 'shown at 29. adjacent the cen ters of the fans while the outlets are shown as openings 30, inthe roof of the structure.

In order to prevent the loss of a certain amount of circulation due to the opening of the doors at both ends of the apparatus, in the course of the interchange of trucks, we haveprovided at these regions, slatted partitions 31-81 and 32-32, which respectively lie within the region of the end circulatory zones, (see Figs. I and II). `These slatted `partitions offer considerable resistance, so

4that the flow of the air is rendered sluggish and the` amount of Iescape thus reduced in proportion. The several fans constituting the meansby which the circulation is effected may be driven in any convenient manner, such as, for example, the belting system indicated comprehensively at 33, in Fig. I. Such systems are of such well known construction that further description 1s not necessary in connection with they present invention. v 1 The operation of the apparatus is as folows:

Referring to Fig. I, it will be observed by tracing the course of the arrows there shown, that the air in eachcirculatory zone is blown by the fan 15, across the inclosure under the guidance of the registering channel formed by the trucks, thereby coming into intimate Contact with the material or articles carried thereon. The circulation then passes through passages 1,2, to the return channel established by the trucks immediately -adja'cent the left of those first referred to, and the circuit is finally completed to. the suction side of the fanthrough the passage 11. lIn the .course of its circuit in each zone, the air first encounters the heating coilsv 23, and humidifying device 27, in the passage 12, and the heating and humidification thus obtained is boosted further on in the circuit when the heating coils 22, and humidifying device 26, in the opposite'channel 11, are encountered. Thus by the construction herein set forth it will be seen that the air within the inclosure is circulated over a number of separate and distinctcourses each'having its own independently regulatablel heating and humidifying system, so that diferent atmospheric conditions may be maintained inthe various ycirculatory zones, such conditions bein 0 maintained and controlled through the aid of recording instruments, such as indicated at 35-35, in Fig. II. This feature of maintaining different atmospheric conditions throughout the length of the inclosure is of' utmost importance in connection with the drying of such articles as china, iorcelain, Crockery, etc., for example. It as been found advantageous' in practice in accom. plishing the best results, that at the receiv ing end of the machine, the temperature should belowest and the humidiication highest, and at thefinishing end of the machine, the conditions should be exactly reversed, and further-that the regulations in the intermediate portions of the apparatus be such as to bring about a gradual change within the extremes mentioned.

The even drying of the articles is further enhanced by the fact'that at each step of the advance of the truck series, the direction of impingement of the 'air is reversed. In other words, in one position, the truck serves as a direct registering channel for the fan, while in the next position, it serves as a return, as a consequence of which the direction of flow of the air is reversed as above noted.

Having thus described our invention, We claim:

l. A drying apparatus comprising an inclosure adapted to receive carriers for the goods to be dried; a series of such carriers having vertical ends forming in the inclosure a. number of transverse channels; and means coperating with said channels to establish, along the length of the apparatus, a series of independent air circulatory zones.

2. A drying apparatus comprising an inclosure adaptedto receive carriers for the goods to be dried; a series ofi' carriers having vertical ends whereby the inclosure is subdivided into a -number of transverse channels; coperative means whereby a series of independent air circulatory zones are established along the length of the apparatus through the aid of the channellng afforded by the carriers; sepa-rate heating devices and humidifying devices located in each air circulatory zone; and independent means for regulating said heating and humidifying devices, so that varying atmospheric conditions may be maintained in different parts of the inclosure.

A drying apparatus comprising an inclosure adapted to receive carriers for the goods to be dried; a series of carriers having vertical ends whereby the inclosure is sub divided into a .number of transverse channels; coperative means whereby a series of independent air circulatory zones are established along the length of the apparatus through the aid of the channeling afforded by the carrier; and means located at 'the region of each circulatory zone for the admission of a quantity of fresh air and the discharge of a corresponding amount of the recirculated air.

4. A drying apparatus comprising an inclosure adapted to receive carriers for the goods to be dried; a series ofsuch carriers having vertical ends forming in the inclosure a number of transverse channels; and means coperating with said vertical ends to circulate air in a number of independent courses, along the length 'of the apparatus, each comprising adjacent channels.

5. A drying apparatus comprising a series of carriers for the articles to be dried and an inclosure of such length as to be capable of accommodating said series of carriers, and of such width as to provide a longitudinal passage at each side of the seriesl of carriers, said Icarriers having vertical ends whereby a number of transverse channels are formed between the longitudinal side passages; in combination with means for circulating the air at separate zonal regions along the length of the apparatus, the circuit in each instance being determined, by

closure adapted to receive carrie adjacent channels afforded by the carriers, and otherwise completed by the common longitudinal side channels of the inclosure.

6. A drying apparatus comprising a series of carriers for the articles to be dried and an inclosure of such length as to be capable of accommodating said series of carriers, and of such width as to provide a longitudinal passage at each side of the series of carriers, said carriers having vertical ends whereby'a number of transverse channels are formed between the longitudinal side' passages; in combination with a Vseries of fans located in one of the side spaces, said fans being adapted to register with the alternate transverse channels, so that the air is circulated over a number of zonal courses along the length of the apparatus, the course of the circulation in each instance being determined by the adjacent transverse channel and otherwise completed by the commonlongitudinal side passages.

7. A drying apparatus comprising an inclosure adapted to receive carriers'for the goods to be dried; a series of carriers having vertical ends whereby the inclosure is subdivided into a number of transverse channels; 'coperative means whereby a series of independent air circulatory zones are established along the length of the apparatus through the aid of the channeling afforded by the carriers; doors protecting the ends of the inclosure; and means located adjacent said ends for minimizing the escape of the circulated air from the interior of the apparatus when the doors are opened to permit interchange of the trucks. 1

8. A drying apparatus comprising an inyrs flor the goods to be dried; a series of carriers havin vertical ends whereby the inclosure is subdivided into a number of transverse channels; coperative means whereby a series of independent air circulatory zones are established along the length of the appara,- tus through the aid of" the channeling afforded by the carriers; doors protecting the receiving and' delivery ends of the inclosure; andslatted partitions located at each side ofthe apparatus adjacent said doors, and adapted to throttle the circulation of the air at these points to minimize the escape of the circulated air from the interior of the apparatus when the doors are opened to permit the interchange of trucks.

In testimony whereof. we have hereunto signed our names at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this first day of August, 1919.

THOMAS ALLSOP. WALTER W. SIBSON.

Witnesses:

JAMES H. BELL. E. L. FULLERTON. 

